I picked up Little Prince today after school today and as usual when it’s been his father’s weekend I haven’t seen him since I dropped him off at school Friday morning. I stood at the end of the aisle in the cafeteria and spotted him coming towards me. He ran up and hugged me tight and then backed up a little bit. He said, “Mommy I have a note for you…” He handed me a folded up piece of paper and I opened it. It has one sentence on it.

I love you Mom a lot.

It made my day

This past weekend was a child free weekend with us. It was oddly quiet and almost creepy at times. I mean even after the kids are in bed I usually hear the occasional night time bathroom trip or something, but no it was quiet. Big Daddy had some free hockey tickets fall into his lap the weekend before for Friday night. So with no kids we had a double date night with his sister and her hubby. It was Triple A Hockey but it was still a good game. Actually ended with a shootout so it wasn’t boring to say the least.

How were we child free you ask? Well this weekend was Little Prince’s weekend with his Dad and Mister Man…well he was kidnapped by some good friends of ours. Their son Lucas* is a year younger then Mister Man and they are best friends. We finally got Mister Man back yesterday. When we got him back it was already dinner time so we all decided to go to Cici’s Pizza. Not exactly the best choice for the diet but hey if I’m gonna fall off the bike I may as well get all scraped up before I get back on right? We were sitting there eating and talking. The kids were talking and eating and still having a good time. When Allie* (the Mom) looks over at Kayla* (their daughter) and says “I’m sorry Princess but you can’t have any salad until you finish your dessert.” Okay about this time Big Daddy, Tim* (the Dad) and I all look at each other before we look at Allie completely confused. We all laughed and Kayla went along eating her dessert. She eventually went back and got some salad after she was done.

Needless to say it was a nice evening hanging out over dinner and talking even if it was a quick impromptu one. We made plans to play in a Magic tournament at the end of the month together. I’m looking forward to that…although I’m quite rusty.

Check back tomorrow for our customer service nightmare while at Cici’s

*Names changed to protect the innocent

Again another week has come and gone. Honestly I was really bad this past week and I was barely on Twitter if at all. I didn’t read blogs. Hell I didn’t do much of anything. So I have a lot of catching up to do now. I’ve done some meditating though and pulled mine and Sadie’s oracle cards for the new moons of this year.

Yesterday I took the boys shopping for shoes that they needed. Mister Man is definitely turning into a man. He’s wearing what will probably be his last “kids” shoe. He moves into the adult sizes after this. Little Prince got a pair of Sketchers because he wanted to be like his big brother (granted his brother got Nikes since Sketchers don’t come in his size anymore but that didn’t seem to bother Little Prince.

The boys helped take the tree down yesterday. Yes our Christmas tree was still up. With my surgery and everything else going on. There was a suggestion made that we just take the ornaments off and put little hearts all over it and make it a Valentine’s Tree. Then take those off and put Shamrocks all over it. Something for each holiday. I just opted to take it down and put it all away until November again. The idea was tempting though.

My Birthday is quickly approaching and I don’t know why this year it’s making me feel so old. It’s not a 5 or a 0 year. For the first time in my life I’m actively working on getting myself in better shape in a safe way and not a crash “divorce diet”. I’m making steady progress towards my goal. And yet I still feel like I’ve been hit by a truck most days. It’s days like this that I wish Tara still lived close by and I could hang out with her. (She has an infections energy that will leave you buzzing after hanging out with her) She was the one that taught me I was more of a fire then a water. Can’t seem to get the fire going lately though…except in small bursts.

Anyway enough of the depressing crap on to the weight. I’m down to 206.4!!! Another 2.4 lbs!! That puts me at 15lbs lost now. Slowly but surely getting there. Big Daddy said he can see it in my face. I can actually feel it in my clothes, although I can’t see it like he does. I can actually pull my current jeans down over my hips without unbuttoning them! I briefly entertained the idea of making a video to show it off like Lotus but I’m not quite that brave. Little Prince, Mister Man and I made the Chocolate Chip cookies from Chubbie Chica. It was one of her 12 Days of Christmas Cookies recipes. I think we are going to try the Ginger Snap ones next. But the Chocolate Chip cookies were WONDERFUL! And only 1 point!! The kids loved them too.

Well that’s it for me today. Let’s hope I can get my rear in gear long enough to do some more posting this week. I have a book review I need to post as well. But I’m struggling with how bad the book really was.

My baby turned twelve today. It’s hard to believe that twelve years ago while watching M.A.S.H. he decided to finally grace us with his presence after nine and a half hours of preecalmptic labor. So hard to believe the perfect quiet textbook baby is now one step closer to being a full teenager. One more step closer to driving and high school and everything else that proves he’s growing up fast. Another step closer to girls being more date like and less buddies. Every day I see Mommy’s little boy retreating just a little more and a young man emerging.

He turns more to Big Daddy for things then me now. And that’s fine…that comes with becoming that young man. Some things he just doesn’t want to talk to Mommy about. For so long it was just me and him against the world. It’s scary to think that soon enough he will be going out against the world on his own.

For the week of 11/30/08 – 12/06/08
Weekly Winners is the brainchild of the wonderfully Sarcastic Mom, Lotus

So tonight Mister Man was booting up his laptop for me to take a look at the project he is working on. (Yes I just said his laptop. The school provides it…not me…lol) It’s an iBook. I LOVE Macs for graphics but haven’t used one on a consistent basis in a long time. So he’s getting it all set up in front of me to show me this project he’s working on. Once it had booted we both looked at it and looked at each other extremely confused. Everything was in Japanese. I couldn’t even figure out where the control panel was because it was all in Japanese. So I called my Mom who is a Mac Administrator to ask her what we could do to fix it.

My Mom answers the phone
me: Um Mom Mister Man’s computer is all in Japanese.
Mom: It’s turning Japanese? I think it’s turning Japanese I really think so.
Me: Great thanks it’s stuck in my head now. But how do I fix it?

We get it fixed and now looking back it’s not as funny as it was at the time. oh well…lol

My brain is fried lately. Between the holidays, Mister Man’s birthday (Don’t get pregnant on St. Patrick’s Day…it leads to Christmas time babies) and probably impending knee surgery I’m a basket case right now trying to get everything done.

The good news is…tomorrow I have something fun for you all It’s a repost from Mrs. B. But it had to be done. Prop 8 the Musical!!

There is also another review up at Two Brooms up. Another book review, House of Dark Shadows by Robert Liparulo. Go Check it out

So in my last post I mentioned feeling guilty for something that was out of my control. It’s been in the back of my mind nagging me to talk about it more. I was thinking that there have to be other that deal with this stuff and maybe could give some insight. My oldest…Mister Man. Hasn’t seen his bio Dad in over three months. It’s nothing I’ve done. Not like I’ve cut him off or anything. He’s just missed every visit. Cancels at the last minute, Makes excuses. Or sometimes just doesn’t even show. The usual excuse is money. That if he would make the trip it would take food out of his kids mouths. Um. Last time I checked Mister Man was his kid too! *insert heavy sigh* Yeah this is where the frustration and guilt kicks in. I know deep down there’s nothing I can do about it. Nothing I can do to change it. I can’t FORCE Screwball1 to come see him. But it’s a once a month visit. You would think he would want to see his son. This is where the guilt really kicks in. The Little Prince sees his Dad all the time. (we have a screwy custody schedule and yes I have two kids with two different Dad. Took me 13 years to figure out I deserved a non abusive man :p) So Mister Man watches his brother here come and go and talk about seeing his Dad. Hell Screwball2 talks to Mister Man more then Screwball1 does. I’m at a loss now. Thanksgiving is supposed to be Screwball1’s holiday. But when he tried to change the plans that were already made and I told him no…he hung up on me. Before he even talked to Mister Man. We called back and he refused to answer. That was almost three weeks ago. We haven’t heard from him since. He won’t answer his phone or return calls. Even if Mister Man leaves a message. I am BEYOND frustrated now.

So Friday night Big Daddy and I begrudgingly excitedly took the kids to the State Fair. We went with my Sister in law, her husband, their three kids, my mother in law and my father in law. It didn’t start all that great. It took over an hour just to get there. It should have only been 25 minutes tops but of course the line to get into the parking lot extended several MILES down the road. I spent the majority of the time telling the kids to relax since the Little Prince kept asking if we were there yet over and over again and texting Sadie to try and keep my sanity.

We finally arrive, parked in BFE and walked (okay everyone else walked. I crutched my happy ass) up to get our tickets. Let me tell you. Crutches at a state fair. Suck big time! We walk in and there is a booth giving away glow sticks so each of the kids got one of those. The next booth over was Cherokee Indian items. They were dancing and the kids were enamored. Only one of my pictures didn’t come out really blurry. I did get a short video though of them dancing.

After that we wandered through one of the buildings that was full of sheep. The flash dance sheep apparently. Don’t believe me? Just look at the pictures…

Now I know it was a little chilly as the night went on…but blue and pink leotards with sparkles? After that we walked into another building that had some beautiful quilts in it but they have a little donut stand and the kids stood there watching the machine squirt out the dough and fry up the donuts. The booth had palm trees in front of it and they just HAD to have their pictures taken in front of it. I introduce you to Belle, Ariel and Buzz. Ariel is the one with the glasses.

After posing with plastic trees and pelicans we headed to get something to eat. All that great greasy fair food you know you shouldn’t eat but do anyway. After we ate we headed over to get a seat early for the pig races. (Yes instead of sipping sangria with a group of lovely women I got to watch pigs run in a circle. The last race I got a little video of because we couldn’t stop laughing. They were Asian pot bellied pigs and there was no running.

After that we walked over to the ferris wheel and amazingly enough the Little Prince wanted to go on it. He went on with my sister in law and Ariel. No one else was brave enough. It wasn’t long after that we headed back to BFE to find our car and head home. I was paying for it the next day…my legs were killing me.

All in all it was a good night though. Everyone had a good time and there was only one meltdown by Buzz and that was around 9:30pm and they were all really tired at that point.

So lately around here some of the oddest things have been coming out of the kids mouths. And it’s been about the weirdest things too. I’ll give you a few examples.

The second day of school the Little Prince was home with us and he, Mister Man and I were sitting around talking about their days.

The Little Prince: Mommy guess what. I have THREE girlfriends (he’s holding three fingers up for emphasis)
Me: Wow! Three whole girlfriends. You know when your brother was in first grade he had seven girlfriends.
Mister man: (Who is leaning back in his chair trying to look cool) Dude…you need to step up your game.

Yes my 11 1/2 year old just told his six year old brother that he needed to step up his game. The next day the Little Prince and I are sitting in the car waiting in the drop off line until they will let us let the kids out talking.

Me: So tell me about your girlfriends. What are their names?
Little Prince: Oh they are Girlfriend one, Girlfriend two and Girlfriend three
Me: Well those are really pretty names. Tell me about Girlfriend one.
Little Prince: She’s brown.
Me: You mean her hair is brown.
Little Prince: (shaking his head) No she’s brown.
Me: You mean like Uncle Knucklehead (don’t like the guy he’s a friend of the exes)
Little Prince: (nodding) Yeah like Uncle Knucklehead
Me: (smiling at his blunt honesty) Okay well tell me about Girlfriend two
Little Prince: She’s blond like me.
Me: And what about Girlfriend Three
Little Prince: She’s blond like me too
Me: Well what color are their eyes?
Little Prince: (Looking at me like I’ve grown another head) Um Mommy why would I look at her eyes?

Yes it took every ounce of strength I had to not fall over laughing in my seat in the car. Needless to say the car line finally started moving and I could drop him off. I promptly called Sadie and shared the story.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another few stories that we’ve accumulated this month with what the kids have been saying.

This post is taken w/ permission from Veronica at Sleepless Nights!

Ivy is beautiful and Ivy is sick. Ivy is only 2.

And yet, at age 2, Ivy has seen the inside of a hospital more times than anyone should have to. Ivy has a rare immune deficiency IgG. Because of that, she has Pemphigus which is an autoimmune response to the IgG [please note, these are photos of Ivy's pemphigus blisters and they may be a little graphic for some people].

These are horrible conditions that no adult should have to deal with, let alone a child.

Ivy is currently on Prednisone and Mycophenolate to help control her symptoms and blistering; however, these drugs suppress her immune system, on top of the deficiency.

Ivy’s mum says “…she was never good at mounting a response to infection but the meds make it worse.”

She frequently ends up in hospital on IV antibiotics, just to help control the infection in her ears that never seems to completely disappear. She cannot be exposed to a simple virus in fear that it will land her back in hospital for days at a time.

She can’t go to the playground to play.

She can’t attend playgroup.

She can’t head to the supermarket with her mother.

She might never be able to go to regular school.

She is only 2.

However, there is a treatment that would give Ivy a good chance at normal life.

It’s called IVIG (intravenous immunoglobulin) and it is a transfusion of immune cells that would bolster Ivy’s own immune system and help her fight infections in a normal way.

Think about it, a chance at a normal life. A life that doesn’t involve frequent hospitalisations.

Unfortunately, the officials at the Australian National Blood Authority have denied the request for Ivy to have this treatment. This treatment that could very well keep her out of hospital. So far, all appeals have been in vain.

As Ivy’s Mum says on her website:

“My little girl is going to have a life of hospital admissions and illness, some chronic, some life threatening, because some guy in an ivory tower decided she could survive without this medication.”

How is this fair?

What if it was your child? What if it was your sister’s child? Do the rules change for daughters of the officials? How come someone with a big stamp gets to say yes or no to this little girl’s chance at a normal life?

It shouldn’t be like this.

All I am asking for is 2 minutes of your time. If you could just head over here and sign our petition, we might be able to get enough support to convince the National Blood Authority officials to change their mind.

Ivy is only 2. She deserves a chance to be normal.

Please, a minute of your time could make all the difference for Ivy.

Sign Petition